Well, if you thought Google Assistant is your best friend and you can share anything with her, then you’re wrong. Google workers listen to your Google Assistant recordings!
After leaked audio recordings were stumbled upon by a Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS, Google has come clear stating they do allow reviewers to listen to your recordings. In a statement, in response to the matter, Google’s exec said they do review recordings, but the audios are not associated with respective Google Accounts.
However, VRT noted that the audios obtained did contain sensitive information, including home addresses and even information that could help identify a person speaking.
Google states the sole reason for reviewing audio recordings is to help them better understand language patterns and accents. But you might be wondering whether this is even allowed by their Terms of use.
Well, that’s what the company states precisely in their privacy policies; Google Assistant “records your voice and audio on Google services to improve speech recognition.” But since most of us never bother reading the user agreement terms of a product, this may be shocking.
So the only thing that Google is answerable to is the audio leakage. In a blog post, David Monsees, Google Product manager stated one reviewer of Dutch audio data leaked some info which is against their data security policies, and the company’s “Security and Privacy Response teams have been activated on this issue, are investigating, and we will take action.”
“We are conducting a full review of our safeguards in this space to prevent misconduct like this from happening again.” He added.
As a cautionary measure in future here’s a simple way to delete your past Assistant recordings data.
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